Senate OKs Modified Form of Helms’ ‘Obscene Art’ Bill

The Senate today endorsed a toned-down version of Sen. Jesse Helms’ proposal to ban federal aid for “obscene art.”

On a 65-31 vote, lawmakers urged House-Senate negotiators to adopt legislation barring federal assistance for “obscene materials” depicting some sexual themes.

“We do know in our hearts that there are community values that we all share and we must uphold as policymakers and Americans,” said Sen. Wyche Fowler (D-Ga.), who helped shape the new provision.

The non-binding measure called for a change in a Senate-passed provision that would have prohibited federal aid for art that is “indecent” or that “denigrates” any race, religion, sex, handicap or age group.

The controversy has become a major stumbling block in the way of House and Senate agreement on a bill to provide about $11 billion for federal land and cultural programs for fiscal 1990, which begins Sunday.

Helms made his original proposal in reaction to two photography exhibits financed with federal grants awarded through the National Endowment for the Arts. The exhibits contained pictures he and others have found offensive.

On July 26, with few members in the chamber, the Senate adopted the original version of the Helms restrictions on a voice vote. But shortly before midnight Thursday, lawmakers refused on a 62-35 vote to reaffirm the July action.

Thursday’s vote clearly worried many legislators, who wondered openly about how it might be used by future election campaign opponents.

“What 30-second ad might come out of this,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said was a lively topic of conversation among his colleagues. The answer, he said, was a commercial stating, “Senator so-and-so voted for pornography.”

Fifty Democrats and 15 Republicans voted for the weaker restrictions, while 28 Republicans and three Democrats opposed them.

The language adopted Friday evolved when Helms offered to drop his insistence that federal aid should be forbidden for art that “denigrates” a religion, race, ethnic background, sex or handicap.